Blago Warns Taxpayers Of Pritzker's $7 Million Deal With Madigan

CHICAGO — Some people want Rod Blagojevich to shut up. A few wouldn't mind if the former governor would just go away.

Other powerful Illinois Democrats prefer to deflect questions about their dealings with the felonious former governor recently released from federal prison six years early by President Trump.

One of those people is Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“What happened more than 10 years ago has nothing to do with where we are today in this state,” the governor said in attempt to dodge questions about his FBI-recorded dealings with Blagojevich.

And maybe he’s right. Pritzker’s desire to spend his inherited fortune to hold public office goes back more than 20 years.

“JB is a guy who wanted to be an elected official for the longest time,” Blagojevich said Thursday during his hour-long appearance on Mancow Muller’s WLS AM 890 morning show. “He was fortunate to be born with a silver ladle in his mouth.”

In 1998, Pritzker spent $500,000 from his slice of the Hyatt Hotel fortune on TV ads during his run for Congress. He came in last place.

“J.B. took his personal wealth and gave Madigan $7 million of it. And that’s why Madigan is working with him.”

Rod Blagojevich

A decade later, Pritzker — who donated $100,000 to help Blagojevich get re-elected in 2006 — got caught on an FBI wiretap chatting up Blagojevich about getting appointed to the U.S. Senate or another statewide office.

When that didn’t work out, Pritzker didn’t give up on his “large” ambition to be a big-time player in Illinois politics.

By November 2018, Pritzker spent $171 million to self-fund his gubernatorial campaign. Just before election day, he wrote a $7 million check to a campaign war chest controlled by House Speaker Michael Madigan, who quietly met with the now governor for the purpose of “planning campaign strategy and … campaign operations.”

“How this might help Pritzker, is unclear,”the Tribune’s Lisa Donovan wrote at the time.

On Thursday, Blagojevich offered an interesting take on that topic from the perspective of a former governor with plenty of experience dealing with Madigan.

“Think about this, $7 million from J.B. to Mike Madigan’s campaign coffers in order to get Madigan to support him for governor, and frankly to pass his legislative agenda,” Blagojevich said. “Madigan basically is holding him up for that campaign money, similar to what he does, what he tried to do with me.”

Blagojevich said in 2006 Madigan asked him to fork over 2.5 percent of his campaign fund while he was running for re-election.

“I politely declined,” Blagojevich said on the Mancow show. “I predicted rightfully that he was going to block our initiatives and try hard to push a tax increase for political purposes less than to serve any kind of good purpose.”

Pritzker’s $7 million donation to the Madigan-controlled campaign war chest that’s used to support Democratic Party-endorsed candidates for state office was about 4 percent of what the now-governor spent on his own campaign — and about a third of what Madigan’s campaign fund spent on house races.

Since Pritzker’s election, the billionaire seems to have had easier time advancing his legislative agenda than any governor, either Republican or Democrat, since Madigan became state House speaker 35 years ago.

Pritzker successfully pushed bills through the state house to legalize marijuana and pass gaming legislation that paved the way for Chicago to open a casino and legalized sports betting.

The rookie governor got state lawmakers to raise gas taxes and hike vehicle registration fees to pay for $45 million in infrastructure construction with support from all but seven House Democrats — a margin so big that Madigan didn’t vote.

Blagojevich offered a theory for why the governor and house speaker work so well together.

“J.B. took his personal wealth and gave Madigan $7 million of it,” Blagojevich said. “And that’s why Madigan is working with him.”

With a Democratic supermajority in Springfield, the mix of Madigan’s power and Pritzker’s apparent willingness to be the party’s campaign piggy bank has emboldened a political eco system that’s not democracy, Blagojevich contends.

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely. You don’t have a check and balance [in Springfield]. And the [Republican] party is weak. … then you get the Madigan types controlling everything behind the scenes. He’s the Wizard of Oz. I’ve dealt with this guy a long time,” Blagojevich said on WLS AM 890.

“He’s a guy that once you move that curtain, he ain’t so tough. But he’s a sneaky little guy. And he’s been there for 100 years. And he controls all the apparatus of government. And he’s got a bunch of lemmings, Democratic state reps, who talk a big game when they’re back home. And as soon as they get back to Springfield they just forget about all that and they take their marching orders from [Madigan].”

Blagojevich also offered his take on how Madigan maintains so much control over Illinois.

“When I left for prison … virtually every one of those lawmakers were on a committee. … And they all get paid extra money. You get an extra $10,000. … And if you don’t go along with [Madigan], you’re not on that committee. He controls them that way. He controls the ability to call a bill. And these lawmakers allow him to have that control. They’ve abdicated that to him,” Blagojevich said.

“He then controls all the campaign money. So, they’re dependent on him, and have to go to him. Then, he gets our substantial governor to give him substantial contributions, like $7 million, and they’re dependent. When they need more of your money they raise your taxes.”

The success of Pritzker’s state budget proposal hinges on winning voter support on the November ballot for a graduated income tax, which is the latest version of a proposal Madigan has floated since at least 2012.

This time around Madigan has a politically ambitious billionaire governor behind him. Pritzker has pumped millions into marketing and will rely on the influence of powerful labor unions to court "Yes" votes for the so-called "fair tax" proposal. Pritzker needs the political win to elevate himself from jolly weed legalizer to viable U.S. presidential candidate. Which insiders will tell you is his ultimate goal.

Blagojevich told Mancow there might not be an explicit quid pro quo between Madigan and Pritzker, but voters should be weary.

“It’s politics. It doesn’t sound good,” Blagojevich said. “It sounds like J.B. is selling out the people with a tax increase. … Business as usual. Keep things the way it is. Make you work for them, not them work for you. It’s not democracy.”

If Pritzker refuses to talk about that time, more than a decade ago, he was caught on a wiretap sniffing around for a political appointment from a sitting governor, Blagojevich says he at least owes Illinois voters an explanation about his $7 million partnership with Madigan.

After the Mancow show, Blago gave me a bit of reporting advice.

“The heart of the question you should ask J.B. is if the feds applied the same standard used against me – and I got 14 years for a $25,000 campaign contribution, OK, that I didn't cross a line on —how would he stay out of prison for giving Madigan $7 million to move his legislative agenda?” Blagojevich said.

“Or would he go to prison for 100 years? Ask him that.”

Well, governor?